Author: Gideon Berger

Every year, mayors from cities of all sizes share their visions for the upcoming year in their state of the city speeches. NLC has analyzed trends in these speeches for the last five years, and it should surprise no one that economic development has remained the most popular topic. But this year, the subtopic of

In many ways, the city of Columbus, Ohio, is an outlier among its peers. It’s the most populous city in Ohio (with 886,000 residents) — despite Cleveland and Cincinnati being perhaps better known — and its metropolitan area, with 2.1 million, leads the Buckeye State as well. And unlike many other cities in America’s so-called

The city of Salt Lake City, Utah, is booming. Between 2010 and 2014, Salt Lake City gained 4,400 new residents, doubling its pace of growth over the previous decade. Now the city’s population is rapidly approaching 200,000, in a metro area pushing 1.2 million people. Planners anticipate this growth continuing, with another 30,000 city residents

In cities, certain neighborhoods may have a history that gave them an economic purpose, a distinctive aesthetic identity, and unique role in their city decades ago — even if time has moved on. When those neighborhoods fall on hard times, that identity can sour from a source of pride to one of perceived blight. And

Among city leaders and economic development professionals, it has become conventional wisdom that history can be a neighborhood’s greatest asset. Historic buildings, businesses, streets and public spaces offer the opportunity to tell the stories of a place’s unique identity — and done right, it can provide fuel for authentic revitalization, compete for private capital, public

For city leaders, attracting new investment to neglected neighborhoods is a fraught challenge. Every decision must juggle housing affordability, economic opportunity and mobility for existing residents, and preserving an area’s unique cultural and historic heritage. In this year’s Rose Center for Public Leadership land use fellowship, those questions are taking center stage. Now in its